Arab autocrats use anti-IS Web war to stifle dissent: Report | Middle East Eye - 0 views
www.middleeasteye.net/...tifle-dissent-report-179617799
internet censorship ISIS Arab media web socialmedia
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the region’s authoritarian leaders are using the threat of IS propaganda as a pretext to clamp down on online critics
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“A spate of new anti-terrorism laws around the region have overly broad definitions of terrorism that fail to distinguish between speech that incites violence or promotes extremism and the type of free speech posted by online journalists and human rights activists.”
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According to the Brookings Institution, a US-based think tank, IS and its supporters ran some 46,000 Twitter accounts last year
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“In the UAE, publicly declaring one’s animosity or lack of allegiance to the regime falls under the country’s broad definition of terrorism. Whereas in Saudi Arabia, the same applies to calling for atheist thought.”
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Globally, internet freedom declined around the world for the fifth year running in 2015, with some governments changing tactics as Web users got better at by-passing state-run controls
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More than 61 percent of Web users live in countries where criticising the government, military or ruling family is censored online, the report said. Another 58 per cent live in countries where people can be jailed for sharing political, social or religious content online